[Juy777]

Ah, been writing my post while you wrote yours.
So maybe we wait for the new FW for "buzz" reports? Or, since I add the FW version I still send it to them?
I intend to send the list tomorrow to James. Still have to go through some pages in the manual to check for typos etc. (I already encountered a whole chapter that was misplaced. but overall the manual is quite good so far.)

I would still include the buzz issue in your list, maybe they wanna know which firmware was used etc.

 

[sander99]

@audiohobbit:
If indeed HPEQ doesn't work via spdif then I think that should be added to 'Feature requests'. But personally I don't think it has high priority.

I thought it was possible at least to run an hpeq from the digital output but no

Are you absolutely sure, did you use the correct spdif output (SPDIF OUT- A)?

 

[Juy777]

I just tried copying a PRIR from permanent internal storage to a SDHC card formatted with FAT32, i used it blank and then with a "realiser" folder in it, both times it pretended to copy
something with a green progress bar but not actually writing any data to the SD card. It is a 32gb card. As i was able to create a "realiser" directory copy protection was obviously off.
Did anyone here successfully copy a PRIR to a SD card with the A16 successfully? If yes, what did i do wrong?

 

[sander99]

I just tried copying a PRIR from permanent internal storage to a SDHC card formatted with FAT32, i used it blank and then with a "realiser" folder in it, both times it pretended to copy
something with a green progress bar but not actually writing any data to the SD card. It is a 32gb card. As i was able to create a "realiser" directory copy protection was obviously off.
Did anyone here successfully copy a PRIR to a SD card with the A16 successfully? If yes, what did i do wrong?

In the realiser folder there must be 2 folders 'PRIRS' and 'HPEQS' (this was not mentioned in the manual, but it was in one of the instruction video's on youtube).
[Edit: I meant to say: you should create those 2 folders on the SD card before you can copy PRIRs and HPEQs to or from the SD card.]

 

[audiohobbit]

But what does this setting actually do in the realiser? Does it actually do nothing or does it do something? It would still be good to know what changes happen if it’s set.

I already put it on the list for the manual.

 

[Juy777]

In the realiser folder there must be 2 folders 'PRIRS' and 'HPEQS' (this was not mentioned in the manual, but it was in one of the instruction video's on youtube).
[Edit: I meant to say: you should create those 2 folders on the SD card before you can copy PRIRs and HPEQs to or from the SD card.]

thanks for the quick response, that worked.

 

[audiohobbit]

@audiohobbit:
If indeed HPEQ doesn't work via spdif then I think that should be added to 'Feature requests'. But personally I don't think it has high priority.


Are you absolutely sure, did you use the correct spdif output (SPDIF OUT- A)?

To not confuse others: The HPEQ itself will work via SPDIF, only the auto HPEQ creation process may not work, but we're not sure about this yet, although the manual clearly says "The HPEQ is only measured at the Headphone A output.". So, seems to be true, and this is odd. If you have some gear behind the Realiser that affects the frequency response, you can't include this into the auto HPEQ.

 

[esimms86]

I can only imagine just how many Kickstarter backers and folks with pre-orders there are lurking on this thread. While I REALLY DO APPRECIATE all the technical discussion going on here, I'm also convinced that the vast majority of future A16 owners desire an almost "plug and play" experience(that is, once their, perhaps, one and only and favorite PRIR has been set up, along with the HPEQ for their favorite set of headphones). So, yes, the A16 is not a simple toy HOWEVER it is still subject to the rule of KISS(or, to paraphrase Einstein, it should be made to be as simple to use as possible but no simpler).

While I supposedly have a PRIR from CanJam New York 2017 stored away by Smyth Research, I still plan to, hopefully sometime over the next 6-8 months, travel to California and pay to have a PRIR made from a high end system(or two). I have a small interest in using the A16 for watching and listening to movies in 5.1 and I am not a gamer, however, my main interest in the A16 is for listening to music in stereo, 5.1 and, occasionally, quad. I have J River Media Center sitting patiently on my laptop(which has a 4K screen, BTW), waiting for A16 Kickstarter #174 to ship. I am somewhat disheartened by the buzz about BUZZ but I expect/hope that a firmware fix will take care of that issue long before my unit ships. So, yeah, I have read all of the incredibly helpful posts from people who have essentially become the earliest of early adopters and I have also watched and collected the Smyth Research Basic and Advanced videos in anticipation of using my A16. I'm also encouraged by the drop off in posts from @Got the Shakes because I read it as a sign that he has more recently been having too much fun just enjoying his A16(as we all eventually hope to do).

 

[Got the Shakes]

I can only imagine just how many Kickstarter backers and folks with pre-orders there are lurking on this thread. While I REALLY DO APPRECIATE all the technical discussion going on here, I'm also convinced that the vast majority of future A16 owners desire an almost "plug and play" experience(that is, once their, perhaps, one and only and favorite PRIR has been set up, along with the HPEQ for their favorite set of headphones). So, yes, the A16 is not a simple toy HOWEVER it is still subject to the rule of KISS(or, to paraphrase Einstein, it should be made to be as simple to use as possible but no simpler).

While I supposedly have a PRIR from CanJam New York 2017 stored away by Smyth Research, I still plan to, hopefully sometime over the next 6-8 months, travel to California and pay to have a PRIR made from a high end system(or two). I have a small interest in using the A16 for watching and listening to movies in 5.1 and I am not a gamer, however, my main interest in the A16 is for listening to music in stereo, 5.1 and, occasionally, quad. I have J River Media Center sitting patiently on my laptop(which has a 4K screen, BTW), waiting for A16 Kickstarter #174 to ship. I am somewhat disheartened by the buzz about BUZZ but I expect/hope that a firmware fix will take care of that issue long before my unit ships. So, yeah, I have read all of the incredibly helpful posts from people who have essentially become the earliest of early adopters and I have also watched and collected the Smyth Research Basic and Advanced videos in anticipation of using my A16. I'm also encouraged by the drop off in posts from @Got the Shakes because I read it as a sign that he has more recently been having too much fun just enjoying his A16(as we all eventually hope to do).

Well I certainly have been enjoying the A16 as much as I hoped I would. I slowly making through my backlog of tv and movies and enjoying the convincing surround sound. Mostly though the drop off has been I’m neck deep in school again and working full time so I’ve been busier than over the summer.

 

[sander99]

"The HPEQ is only measured at the Headphone A output."

You can also read this as "Only A, not B" instead of "Only front headphone A output".

You can test it yourself if you want to: just connect spdif out-A to a spdif input on your AVR (and connect headphones to your AVR). Beware though that your AVR must be able to accept 24 bit (I think), you could test first if sound gets through in a normal listening mode.

Which makes me think:
@jgazal: you do get sound from the spdif out-A (and/or B) for normal use, not doing a HPEQ measurement?

 

[audiohobbit]

I added a Tips and Tricks section to my post in the other thread; added the folder structure of the SD-card.

Changed the title of the thread and managed to add a poll for your most important missing features.

Seems you can only have one poll per thread and "only" 10 answers per poll. Not very useful for this purpose.

I limited answers to max. 3. Otherwise everyone would vote for everything...

Follow the link in my signature to vote.

 

[audiohobbit]

You can also read this as "Only A, not B" instead of "Only front headphone A output".

You can test it yourself if you want to: just connect spdif out-A to a spdif input on your AVR

The chapter before it clearly says: "Set the headphone gain of User A appropriately for the headphones to be measured (set to LOWif unsure)"
They wouldn't write this if the HPEQ could also be measured via analog line out or SPDIF out, I think.

Actually I'm not so sure anymore if it is not the same with the A8 (have to look into the manual). It's some time ago that I last did a HPEQ with the A8.

And yes you're right I could test SPDIF with my AVR, already thought about this to have better and faster volume control, but I leave this to others for the moment since I'm too busy.

 

[bcwang]

To not confuse others: The HPEQ itself will work via SPDIF, only the auto HPEQ creation process may not work, but we're not sure about this yet, although the manual clearly says "The HPEQ is only measured at the Headphone A output.". So, seems to be true, and this is odd. If you have some gear behind the Realiser that affects the frequency response, you can't include this into the auto HPEQ.

I'm pretty sure I made an HPEQ measurement using SPDIF out to my dac -> headphone amp before, so it works. You'd have to set the volume level appropriately to avoid clipping and get into the greens. I think though the manual mentions using the gain switch to get it to the right level when using the analog output, the volume control of the outboard system is essentially doing the same thing.

And if you're using an SPDIF output chain instead of the built-in headphone amp for actual listening, it makes sense that it is measured with the same chain in place as the whole goal is to equalize the difference of the speaker chain vs the headphone chain to replicate it correctly. If you don't measure it the same way you won't have as good results. A DAC and AMP may give slightly difference response vs the analog output, so measuring what you'll use is what you want to do for best results.

I think the whole thing about using headphone A output just means when doing measurements, it is driven to headphone A output only so you won't hear anything if connected to headphone B. It won't matter at the end anyway since it's the same amp/etc.. on headphone B so after measurement you can use any of the two jacks. This statement doesn't mean you can't use the SPDIF output to do the HPEQ measurement, but you do have to use the SPDIF output of headphone A.

 

[audiohobbit]

Maybe you're right. Would make much more sense. Can somebody please check this?

Does anyone know more about DTS X, is there no 9.1.6 setup in DTS X?
Just going through the appendices (lots of errors with missing loudspeakers or wrong labels in the tables) and wondered why there is no 9.1.6 or any x.x.6 setup for DTSX.


Edit: Just saw when you turn on Dolby enabled speakers in the Listening Room Setup, there are three options df, dm, dr, and combinations of these, meaning dolby front, mid, rear.
If you have a x.x.4 setup for example and df enabled, then the labels of the top front speakers change from Ltf and Rtf to Ldf and Rdf, same with dr and top rear speakers Rdr and Ldr instead of Ltr and Rtr, and with dm for top mid speakers. So if you want to enable these I think you have to create a PRIR where UF and FF is set up for these speakers (that's actually in the manual).
So I think that's all it does, no more.
And you can forget about this because it's just a dummy for Dolby to get the license. No one will ever use this with a Realiser. Even if you measure a "Ldf" you just declare it as a normal Ltf speaker.

 

[sander99]

Does anyone know more about DTS X, is there no 9.1.6 setup in DTS X?
Just going through the appendices (lots of errors with missing loudspeakers or wrong labels in the tables) and wondered why there is no 9.1.6 or any x.x.6 setup for DTSX.

Smyth expected the DTS:X decoding to be initially limited to 7.1.4 or 9.1.2 channels (even when they managed to do Dolby Atmos 9.1.6).
The 2018 March 31 update seems to suggest that indeed DTS:X itself doesn't or didn't support more channels yet:

4. On a more positive note the A16 is now capable of decoding Dolby Atmos natively to 9.1.6ch, and we’ll be demonstrating this at CanJam LA next week. DTS:X, whilst still restricted to 11 speakers at present, can now operate in the 'wide' speaker 9.1.2ch format as well as their standard 7.1.4ch format. We understand that DTS also plan to increase the number of channels for DTS:X. If this happens and if our AMP89 decoding hardware can handle such formats, will will issue these improvements using A16 firmware field updates.